


The small things

by kingsofhawkins



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: After Starcourt Mall, Angst and Feels, Billy Hargrove Lives, Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington in Love, Domestic Fluff, It's very minor angst, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Soft Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington just wants to help, mostly feels, they live together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:33:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25949656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingsofhawkins/pseuds/kingsofhawkins
Summary: After Starcourt Billy doesn’t remember much. Bits and pieces that don’t feel important but are slip his mind regularly and Billy hates how lost he feels, confused when he can’t remember to buy more milk or take his laundry out of the washing machine.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80





	The small things

After Starcourt Billy doesn’t remember much. Bits and pieces that don’t feel important but are slip his mind regularly and Billy hates how lost he feels, confused when he can’t remember to buy more milk or take his laundry out of the washing machine. He guesses he’s kinda lucky that Steve sticks around him even though Billy hazily remembers smashing a plate over his head once, he still doesn’t know why he did it, but he apologises every day to Steve when he can.

After the time Billy left his keys in the front door overnight Steve suggests writing things down on post-it notes and sticking them to the headboard of their bed, which Billy still can’t over the fact that it’s their bed because he feels like he doesn’t deserve Steve in the slightest, sees it when sometimes Steve flinches when Billy gets angry and frustrated with himself for forgetting the simple things. He did something to Steve that Steve will never forget, and that tears Billy up inside.

At first the post-its work, Billy actually remembers to take the trash out on Wednesdays and to wash the sheets and put them in the dryer on Saturdays. It’s nice to take back the control he so hastily lost against his will. Except, eventually he starts forgetting to write things down because he doesn’t always carry the pad of post-its with him, or he’ll forget a pen to jot things down with then it becomes too much too quick and Billy ends up having an episode and has to go back to Pauline, his government appointed psychologist, to get past flashbacks of the night he was forced to become something so horribly wrong. Steve stays with him the entire time, taking him to his sessions and then holding him when they get home, never asking the obvious question of ‘are you okay?’ because Steve knows Billy hates that question because it’s so apparent that he isn’t.

Billy lapses for weeks and can’t remember anything, he gets mad at Steve for trying to help and has to end up staying with Hopper for a few days just to cool off because “fucking hell Steve stop hovering you’re suffocating me and I’m sick of hearing you tell me how to do things” doesn’t exactly go over well with Steve. While he stays with Hopper the old man actually gives him good advice.

“I know it’s hard and you just want to get better but screaming and getting angry at the people who are trying to help you get there isn’t making this go faster. Let Steve help, he may not understand fully what it feels like to forget but that doesn’t mean he isn’t trying. He loves you, don’t fuck that up son.”

Billy goes back home and ends up apologising and agreeing that Steve can help sometimes. It works decently enough; Billy starts to remember things before the accident like what his favourite music was and how to make his moms apple pie. Little things but little things that make him feel closer to being somewhat the same as he was before. After a while though Billy comes up with a great solution, he hands Steve a Sharpie and makes him take it with him everywhere, when Billy remembers something or knows he has to do a certain thing later he writes it on Steve’s arms and hands and it works like a charm, every night before bed Billy reads the things he scribbled down then by some miracle remembers to do them the next day.

Admittedly the recovery period takes longer then Billy had initially thought it would but he’s slowly getting there and by the end of the year he’s almost back to normal. Almost, he’s changed a few things about himself along the way because he realises that he actually loves Max and wants to spend time with her so he takes her shopping every Friday afternoon and he even goes back to reading poetry now that his father isn’t around to call him a sissy for liking it. He even helps the party with things because he’s always been into nerdy stuff but got so stuck in the stigma of having to fit in and like what everyone else liked that he pushed that side of him so far down he almost forgot it was there, but with some soft encouragement from Steve and Max he ends up playing DnD with the nerds every Saturday night. The routine helps him adjust and Billy actually feels genuinely happy for the first time in what feels like forever.

*

The night he and Steve celebrate their first year of dating Billy has to scribble something on Steve’s hand before they fall asleep, he uncaps the Sharpie and grabs Steve’s already inked hand and writes on his palm, ‘don’t forget to buy a ring’. He hears Steve inhale sharply before Billy crashes. Miraculously a week later Billy gets down on one knee and asks Steve to marry him.

It’s not perfect all the time but Billy and Steve make it work anyways.


End file.
